JULY 25,2018 OUR GROUP 23 OF MORNING HOTSHOTS

“We should be sensible, tactful, considerate and humble without being servile or scraping. As God’s people we stand on our feet; we don’t crawl before anyone.”

― Alcoholics Anonymous

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VERNON HOWARD

“A self-working individual will be sitting around home one day when the startling thought occurs, “Here I am, sitting around, doing nothing of interest, nothing to hope for, no one to talk with-and I am not depressed.”

― Vernon Howard, The Mystic Path to Cosmic Power

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The Serenity Prayer

God grant me the serenity to

Accept the things I cannot change;

Courage to change the things I can;

And the Wisdom to know the difference.

We were now at Step Three.

Many of us said to our Maker, as we understood Him:

“God, I offer myself to Thee – to build with me and to do with me as Thou wilt. Relieve me of the

bondage of self, that I may better do Thy will. Take away my difficulties, that victory over them

may bear witness to those I would help of Thy Power, Thy Love, and Thy Way of life. May I do Thy

will always!”

We thought well before taking this step making sure we were ready; that we could at last abandon

ourselves utterly to Him.

Seventh Step Prayer

-The Seventh Step Prayer is from page 76. The Big Book

When ready, we say something like this:

“My Creator, I am now willing that you should have all of me, good and bad. I pray that you now

remove from me every single defect of character which stands in the way of my usefulness to you

and my fellows. Grant me strength, as I go out from here, to do your bidding. Amen.”

We have then completed Step Seven.

-(Both derived from page 86 in the Big Book)

St Francis Prayer

-From Chapter 11 of “Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions”

“Lord, make me a channel of they peace,

that where there is hatred, I may bring love;

that where there is wrong, I may bring the spirit of forgiveness;

that where there is discord, I may bring harmony

that where there is error, I may bring truth;

that where there is doubt, I may bring faith;

that where there is despair, I may bring hope;

that where there are shadows, I may bring light;

that where there is sadness, I may bring joy.

Lord, grant that I may seek rather to comfort than to be comforted;

to understand, than to be understood;

to love, than to be loved.

For it is by self-forgetting that one finds.

It is by forgiving that one is forgiven.

It is by dying that one awakens to Eternal Life.”

St. Francis Assisi (1182-1228).

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You are an eternal being now on the pathway of endless unfoldment, never less but always more yourself. Life is not static. It is forever dynamic, forever creating not something done and finished, but something alive, awake and aware. There is something within you that sings the song of eternity. Listen to it.

Ernest Holmes

I always knew I was an alcoholic but

I didn’t want to do anything about it.

Anonymous

Moral values, and a culture and a religion,
maintaining these values are far better
than laws and regulations.Swami Sivananda

Through Love all that is bitter will be sweet,

Through Love all that is copper will be gold,

Through Love all dregs will become wine,

through Love all pain will turn to medicine.

RUMI

ACIM Workbook Lesson 176 Insights

Review:“God is but Love and therefore so am I.”

“Give me your blessing, holy Son of God. I am as God created me.”

“Give me your blessing, holy Son of God” is not asking my brother to do anything. It is really an affirmation to myself that I want to see the face of Christ in my brother. It is through this vision that I receive his blessing. I have had moments when my heart was filled to overflowing with Love. In these moments Love reached out through me to my brothers in warm embrace. I saw each as my friend. All barriers faded. And the more I allowed the Love to extend, the more my heart overflowed.

I believe this is a taste of what it means to accept my holy brother’s blessing. In these times of overflowing Love, I feel perfectly safe and at peace. There is no holding back, because there is no sense of vulnerability and hence no need to protect. The Course is encouraging me to let this be a daily and hourly and moment by moment experience. It reflects Heaven, where there are no limits and no boundaries.

Holy Spirit, help me open my heart today to the Love that has been given me, that I may share It with all the world. Let me see the Light in my brother and reflect his Light back to him, that we may both see the Light we share.

We wake up from this dream of separation as we are willing to look past bodies to the Light of God we all share. It is through opening to the truth of the Light in our brother that we remember that we are still as God created us. We remember that nothing has changed. We are still Love and our brother is still Love. The dream of separation is not true. The Light of God is all there is to see.

This is my practice today. I see the Light of God by making the decision to be open to the truth. The Light of God is always there. It has always been there and will always be there. When I recognize it is there depends on my willingness to recognize the truth.

If I want to see bodies, if I want to see separation, that is what I will see. So today I will work on my willingness to see the truth about my brother, and in the process, I find the truth about myself.

I choose to make today a happy one by opening to God’s truth. It is everywhere and all around me. How willing am I to see it today?